Spring Cleaning

Spring cleaning is in progress, in more ways than one! In the month of silence here on the blog we have signed and closed on a home (!), our first one chosen together:

spent two weeks cleaning, fixing and painting it before we moved our things in…

Packed up the material things of our lives and hauled them down three flights of steps, across town, and up another flight of steps (our home is built on a hill) and unpacked about 80% of our things.

Moving the critters was necessary, too; we have two (indoor only) kitties and only one Pet Taxi, so poor Maggy had to make the 12 mile trip in a cardboard box (getting her in there and to the car was no easy feat):

We made an Ikea run to the Twin Cities for curtains (22 windows in this new place!) and storage items. Hosted Easter at our home just three days after moving in (yes, I may be insane). The porch swing is the favorite feature of any visitor under the age of 12:

And set up my new sewing studio before anything else, other than the bed, (priorities, right?!?) which will get a post of it’s own (but a sneak peak wouldn’t hurt):

Sewing this past two months has involved curtains (LOTS of hemming), quilts for upcoming Row House Creations patterns, hand sewing on my Candied Hexagons while riding in the car (piecing ROWS together finally!) and my yet-unfinished Madrona Road Challenge:

There has been some a lot of Spring cleaning in the non-physical realm as well; coming through a dark period of depression, a “funk” if you will, (exacerbated by our seemingly-never-ending-Iowa-Winter) and helping my sweetie navigate an extremely scary stress-induced situation and making some life-changing decisions to alleviate that stress; and some overhauling of my sorely neglected health habits.  As of yesterday, it seems Spring has FINALLY come to Des Moines and I feel like we are leaving this dark period behind.  Good things to come…

If you are still here, let me know with a comment or email.  I truly appreciate you sticking with me through the good times and the bad!

Happy sewing!

Doris

It’s not too late…

… to join in on the National Quilting Day (shouldn’t we have a week or a month?!) over at Row House Creations! Giveaway is open through the week.

Enter on Facebook, instead, if you prefer!

I am packing up my sewing room this weekend for a March 27th move to our new home(!!!). Anyone care to help pack? I’m hoping to sneak in some sewing time yet this week before the Janome goes in the box….

Happy First Day of Spring!

December Drumroll…

I have to share my last few finishes of 2012, including a big one… but, it wouldn’t be as fun if I gave it away right up front, right? So a quick December recap first:

Every year, my girlfriend’s an I have a favorites party, you know, like Oprah’s “My Favorites” giveaway episodes? Only on a smaller scale, but same idea. We give the exact same gift to each of the women at the party, something that we consider a “favorite” from the year. None of these five friends are quilters, so no sewing themed gifties.  We started the “My favorites” party tradition last year, and I think it’s going to stick!

This year I gave them each an Aveda gift bag containing Aveda Foot Relief and Hand Relief Lotions:

My favorite Aveda product, period.  Especially for Winter dry hands, it’s a Godsend.  From my five friends I received:

From Michelle: her favorite car freshener and a Jason’s Deli giftcard

From Kelly: her favorite Gold Canyon candle, Vanilla Rum

From Carisa: her favorite Tea and a statement “Hope” bracelet

From Tonya: an Angel ornament, Lindor Truffles, and an Orange Leaf giftcard

and from Carrie: her favorite Bath & Bodyworks Candle, MERRY MISTLETOE and Pretzel m&m’s

I didn’t have much of a chance to create gifts this year, aside from the Baby Cheetah onesie for Carrie’s baby:

I did sew a pillowcase as a stocking stuffer for my sweetie:

The fabric is Alexander Henry’s “the great outdoors” – he picked out the pillowcase kit a while ago.  There are some risque images on this fabric, so I had to crop the photo accordingly.  He has another Alexander Henry pillowcase made from similar Cowgirl Pinups, only not quite as risque.  I think I eventually need to make myself one of Alexander Henry’s Valentine Men or Construction Men fabric pillowcase to match.

I made my sweetie another Christmas gift, a photo frame that I painted a pale pink and embellished with type stamps to read “Grandpa’s Girl”, since his first grand-baby was due to arrive on Christmas Eve.  She arrived promptly on her due date, so I let him open that present right away — She was framed and on his end-table before she turned 4 hours old:

If you’ve been reading this blog for a little while, you know we spent much of 2012 first moving my Mother from her house 100 miles away (selling the home, cleaning out, packing, garage selling extra stuff, etc.), to a very nice retirement cottage community only 19 miles from us, and THEN, helping my MIL clean out her house (of 58 years!) to move into an Independent Living apartment at a new retirement community.  That was a huge task, and it is still ongoing (she is moved into her new home, but the old house is not completely empty, yet – a saga in itself, but I’ll spare you the details).

We have made three, 3-day trips to the St. Paul, MN (about a 4.5 hour drive one-way) since Thanksgiving.  Sweetie even made one day trip in between without me along.  That is A. LOT. OF. DRIVE. TIME. my friends, or riding time for me, as my sweetie does about 65-75% of the driving on these trips.

But, do you know what that means?  You all know what I do when a passenger on a road trip, right…?  Hand-piecing.

And y’all know what I have been hand-piecing forever, right…?  (or at least since July 4th, 2010)…

Candied Hexagons!  These are a few I made on the Thanksgiving Weekend trip… and those I made in med-December….

and on Christmas Eve, I sewed the last blocks up while relaxing at home watching Downton Abbey Season 2 on DVD (possibly the only blocks I made outside of a vehicle!).  I finished the final one up just before the ball dropped at Midnight, and now have all 104 full blocks and 12 have blocks pieced!

Ta-Da!!! (insert drumroll, here):

Here they are unceremoniously laid out on my studio floor.  I have them all organized to start sewing into rows… My sweetie came in while I was arranging these on the floor and he said “wow, I wasn’t sure I’d ever see the day when you had these all made.”  I had doubts myself…

I’m considering alternatives for the border, debating whether I want to stick with the original border design or create my own. Decisions, decisions….  but I think I have a day or two before I have to decide.

Happy sewing,

Doris

Looking forward…

and reflecting on the last 12 months…

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013 ! ! !

It’s that week in the crafty blogosphere where many post a mosaic of “finishes” or accomplishments from the past year… so why not join in, huh?

Thinking back, I felt that 2012 was not a particularly productive year for me, that is, until I went through my photos and blog archives, and really tallied up my accomplishments:

In 2012…

I made an appliqué baby blanket for my niece,

and a clothespin holder for my sister-in-law,

I hosted a craft-filled Monster themed baby shower for a much loved friend,

finished up my Diet Quilt,

and my Halloween quilt,

made myself a dress from a vintage Simplicity pattern,

made a special baby gift for another dear friend’s wee one,

pushed myself by paper-piecing and embroidering a Diet Coke bottle mini quilt,

made a pillow for a swap,

and another for a gift,

I made several zipper pouches as gifts for a fun group of friends I only see once a year,

created unique Halloween costumes for my sweetie and me,

made a BIG ironing board for pressing fabric and a design wall,

Finished up a special quilt for an internet friend with the help of some other bloggy friends,

made a hand-sewing kit for a my friend, Cindy,

and a much loved Dr. Seuss quilt for one of my very favorite little persons…

And then there is the pattern company, and the 9 or 10 Modern Fortune quilts that Trina and I made together, and the 6-7 One Big Cabin quilts we made… and the two quilts we have finished for pattern number three, and the time invested on pattern number four….  (Holy Toledo!  That’s nearly TWENTY quilts!)  That’s above and beyond our full-time jobs!

I guess 2012 was a VERY productive year, after all!

Last January I made some creative resolutions, let’s see how I did (notes in red):

• I resolve to spend more time sewing on my ancient WIPs and UFQs.  I didn’t finish any of them but MAJOR progress was made on my Candied Hexagon quilt, and my Love in a Mist quilt top is DONE! 
• Spend more time sewing clothing (for me and maybe for that little baby niece)  The only item of clothing I completed was my Easter dress, made from a vintage pattern.  Must do better in 2013.

• In 2012, I’m going to sew my own quilts, my own inspirations, and not worry so much about what trends are popping up on blogs, Pinterest, and flickr. Or if it will fill a void here on the blog….  If I like it, and I feel it, I’ll create it!  yep, pretty much marched to my own drummer this year, blogged when I felt like blogging and spent less time worrying about what other thought of me, my blog, my work, etc.
• And lastly, I want to try some new things.  I haven’t defined exactly what those new things are yet, but I know I want to experiment more this year and work/sew outside of my comfort zone.  I guess the pattern business, particularly marketing, selling, and promoting would fall under this category–much of that was outside of my comfort zone!

I’m not going to write any new crafty resolutions, but I will renew the four I wrote last year, and see how much more I can add to them in 2013!

Writing this post has energized me and inspired me…  Reflection is sometimes very useful.

An Update to Yesterday’s Post

We didn’t have to wait long; our Christmas gift came early this morning:

Granddaughter Gemma Lucy

born on her due date, 12/24/12

Christmas has Come.

Today we celebrated our first Christmas; with sweetie’s two daughter’s and his oldest’s boyfriend. We spent most of last evening and this morning chopping, preheating, cutting, washing dishes, icing, glazing, baking, mixing, washing dishes, stirring… (the dishwasher is running yet again as I type; not to mention all the dishes we washed by hand).  My sweetie does not cook, but he takes direction well, and he’s good at sticking with it until the job is done. Together, we made this lovely brunch, and the Christmas cookies and candy:

A fruit compote (pineapple, bananas, strawberries, and apples)

Chocolate Dipped Fruit kebabs

Pecan Swirl Cinnamon Rolls

Sausage and Apple Quiche

Dark Chocolate Sugar Cookies

Saltine Toffee

Christmas Wreaths (Holly Crackles)

I ate entirely too much — but it was all so good.  Incidentally, should you decide to make that Dark Chocolate Cookie recipe, I recommend using your own common sense when it comes to cutting them out and baking them.  Martha Stewart must be on crack if she thinks anyone in the real world (read: anyone without a sizeable staff) has that kind of time to devote to one damn batch of cookies.  Read the recipe, you’ll understand what I mean.  I didn’t spend any of that time freezing rolled out dough, I don’t possess parchment paper, and my cookies turned out great.

Sweetie’s youngest loves to bake (and is GREAT at it); she brought a large tray of cookies to add to mine.  I don’t even want to admit how few of those cookies are left on the plates this evening. His eldest brought a gift basket of flavored popcorn, chocolate dipped pretzels, cookies she baked, and some wonderful smelling William-Sonoma hot cocoa. I’m going to need to fast for a few days after the festivities are over…

We gave each of the kids a stocking full of goodies, exchanged a few goodies and lots of conversation; the afternoon was gone before we knew it.

The youngest gave us a “Box of Dates”; to be opened one at a time, any time we decide we need a “date night”.  Some are marked for “winter”, “spring”, etc., and others are marked “anytime”.  Clever gift, huh?  It’s kind of fun to think we get to draw Christmas out by having delayed gratification of one of our gifts…

Winter arrived this week, as well.  With a vengeance, I might add… Wednesday and Thursday, we got hit hard with a true, honest-to-goodness blizzard.  Trees and wires were felled under the weight of the snow and ice, highways were closed for much of Thursday, and travel was almost non-existant.  The result was roughly a foot of snow, and on Friday, some beautiful sights…

Tomorrow is a celebration with my side of the family, more eating, conversation and laughter.  It also happens to be the due date for grandbaby girl (our first grandchild).  She doesn’t seem to be in a big hurry to join us, but you never know… we’re hoping we get to meet her sometime this week!

A Very Merry Christmas to you and yours…